There are well over 200 law schools in the United States. Of these,
181 are approved by the American Bar Association. In turn, 162 of those
are members of the Association of American Law Schools. And of those, only
76 have chapters of the Order of the Coif, legal education's national honorary
society.

The Cardozo School of Law opened its doors in 1976, was approved by
the ABA in 1978, and was admitted to the AALS in 1983. And now, as of March
16, 1999, it has joined the much smaller group of law schools with a chapter
of the Order of the Coif. Cardozo is the youngest law school in the country
with a chapter. We join NYU, Cornell, Fordham, and Syracuse as the only
law schoolsˇand there are 15ˇin New York State with Coif chapters.

Establishment of a chapter of the Order of the Coif is an important
milestone for Cardozo. It confirms our position as not only an established
but a superior law school and reminds us how far we have come in such a
short period.

So what is the Order of the Coif, anyway?

The usual shorthand description is that Coif is the law school equivalent
of Phi Beta Kappa. Its stated purpose is "to encourage excellence in legal
education by fostering a spirit of careful study." The most visible aspect
of having a Coif chapter is that the top 10 percent of the graduating class
are elected to membership in the Order. They receive a certificate, a handbook,
a handshake, and, not least, an important line on their resume.

The Order does more than just honor top students, however. It is also
well known in legal academic circles because of its triennial book award.
This is arguably the single most prestigious award given for legal scholarship.
Recent winners have included Gerald Gunther for his biography of Judge
Learned Hand, G. Edward White for his biography of Justice Holmes, Mary
Ann Glendon, Ronald Dworkin, Guido Calabresi, John Hart Ely, and Jesse
Choper. The Order also supports a national lecture series, allowing member
schools the opportunity to bring outstanding scholars to their campuses.

As for the "coif" itself,[Note 1] that was a round
piece of white cloth, a sort of a doily, that medieval English serjeants-at-law
wore atop their wig. Five centuries ago, serjeants were the top dogs of
English lawyers. Appointment as a serjeant was a significant honor and
a great professional benefit, not least because judges were drawn exclusively
from among serjeants. This exclusivity arrangement lasted until abolished
by Parliament in 1837. Originally, serjeants-at-law wore a particular sort
of hood; when lawyers started wearing wigs, the serjeants abandoned the
hood and adopted the coif. The English "Order of the Coif" was the corporate
society of the serjeants. To be a serjeant-at-law was to be a member of
the Order of the Coif. Fortunately, modern-day members of the American
Order are not obliged to don an actual coif, but in earlier centuries the
coif was worn with pride. According to one contemporary account, during
the ceremony creating a new serjeant, "[t]he white coif of the order was
placed on the head of the serjeant-elect with the same solemnity as the
helmet was formerly placed on the head of the knight."[Note
2]

The English Order of the Coif came to an end in the late 1800s after
many centuries of decline. The contemporary American version began at Northwestern
in 1907 and does not actually have any connection with the historical English
order other than the name and, at an abstract level, an aspiration toward
quality. Apparently it was the influence of John Henry Wigmore, author
of the famous treatise on evidence, an enthusi
ca1
astic Anglophile, and dean
at Northwestern, that led to the adoption of "Order of the Coif" as the
name for the new honorary society. The Order adopted its first constitution
in 1912 and has grown steadily. But for a couple of conspicuous absences,
the list of schools with Coif chapters is the honor roll of law schools.
(Oddly, neither Columbia nor Harvard has a Coif chapter. It seems safe
to say that they qualify; for reasons best known to themselves, they have
not sought to join.)

Although Cardozo's charter is dated March 1999, under the Order's constitution
a new chapter can reach back two years to elect members. This spring, there
will be a ceremony at the Law School to initiate into the Order of the
Coif those members of the classes of 1997 and 1998 who finished in the
top 10 percent.

We should be justly proud that the officers and other chapters of the
Order have recognized Cardozo's quality in granting it a chapter. In the
words of the Order's former secretary-treasurer, "Creation of new chapters
is a demanding procedure designed to ensure that member law schools offer
a distinctly superior quality of education."[Note 3] The
whole process took almost two years and included a lengthy application
and an on-site inspection. The Order receives multiple applications each
year; it generally creates one new chapter a year at most and does not
necessarily grant even one.

Our success, to those who know Cardozo well, should not come as a surprise.
But not everyone knows Cardozo well. One benefit of our successful application
for a chapter is that both the process and the result will inform others
in the legal academy of the school's quality. We were particularly gratified
when the inspectors wrote in their site report:

Based upon a knowledge of its reputation, team members came
to Cardozo with the expectation of visiting a very good law school. We
left with the impression that the school is far better than we had anticipated,
and that it exceeds its reputation by a wide margin.

This being an ever-more promotional world, law schools often send
their magazine to many to whom they have no particular connection. As Associate
Dean, I read or, to be precise, glance at alumni magazines from many other
law schools. One caught my eye recently because the cover story was that
it planned to apply for a chapter of the Order of the Coif. It is
very nice to be in the position of having our cover story be that we have
been granted a Coif chapter.

Notes

1 Although it looks French, the word is pronounced
"koyf," not "quaff." As with a certain much-mispronounced street about
half a mile south of Cardozo, those in the know sound like they are saying
it wrong.

2 Frank R. Strong, Order of the Coif: English Antecedents
and American Adaptation, 63 ABA J. 1725, 1726 (1977), quoting Alexander
Pulling, The Order of the Coif.

3 Strong, supra note 2, at 1727. For those really
interested in the history of the organization and its English namesake,
this article is the best place to start.
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